The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in the spring of 2020 had a profound impact on education in Iceland and worldwide and presented many challenges to schoolwork. In upper secondary schools in Iceland all teaching was converted to emergency remote teaching (ERT, Bozkurt & Sharma, 2020) in middle of March and teachers and students worked from home. In the fall schoolwork was  organized as classroom-based or a mixture of classroom and remote teaching but school buildings were closed to students again after few weeks. Already a number of studies have shed a light on schoolwork during the pandemic (see e.g., Huber, 2021; Jóhannsdóttir & Jakobsdóttir, 2020; Khanal & al., 2021; Van der Spoel & al., 2020) but the aim of this paper is to look at how the uncertainty and constant changes impacted students.

Not being able to see friends, participate in extra-curricular activities, or attend social events during the pandemic was a source of distress for some students (Magson et al., 2021) and they felt lonely and distressed. Several other studies showed that students missed having face-to-face communication with their schoolmates (Esposito et al., 2021; Niemi og Kousa, 2020; Pelikan o.fl., 2021; Sofianidis o.fl., 2021). While other studies indicated that student communication during lessons did not decrease, and that new technology may have changed the way young people communicate (Ferraro et al., 2020).

Upper-secondary schools in Iceland offer a variety of study programs defined at different qualification levels. The academic track aims at preparing students for university education, vocational training prepares students for regulated professions, and general upper secondary education is for those who did not meet the requirements for first two tracks (Ministry of Education, Science and Culture, 2011). The students in the upper-secondary schools are a diverse group with different needs who were effect by the pandemic in different ways and to a different degree. Some studies revealed that students experienced severe anxiety related to the pandemic (Ningsih et al., 2020; Thahir et al., 2021), while others found a decrease in anxiety among students during the pandemic (Ferraro et al., 2020). In the US the pandemic widened achievement gaps, increased drop-outs, and impacted well-being of students (Dorn et al., 2021); the same might be true elsewhere. Then there is the question of how students cope with resuming their studies in school buildings how it is to return to what was normal before.  

The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Icelandic upper-secondary students. We examined which groups felt the most negative effects of the pandemic and if some students found it more difficult than others to resume traditional studies within the walls of the school after the pandemic.  In order to evaluate this, we will look at which factors in the students' background predicted a) more anxiety  in distance learning compared to traditional on-site learning b) more  loneliness  in distance learning compared to traditional on-site learning c) and what factors predicted that students felt difficult return to school.

An online questionnaire was administered to students in four upper-secondary schools in the spring semester of 2021. Three of these were comprehensive schools, offering both academic tracks and vocational training, and the fourth was a traditional academic school (grammar school). The number of participants was 1,306, and of those 55% were women. About 59% were on an academic track, 20% were in vocational training, and 16% were in general upper secondary education (only offered in the comprehensive schools) for those who did not meet the academic requirements for the first two tracks. Participants answer question about conditions that they they believed affected their learning (ADHD, dyslexia, anxiety, depression, social anxiety, disability and so forth). They also answered question about how they felt about returning to traditional learning when schools finally reopened, if they experience more or less anxiety and loneliness in distance education compared to traditional studying in classroom. Data were analyzed with SPSS using odd ratio and regression.

The findings of the study indicate that most students perceived online teaching as effective. About half of the students experienced less anxiety with distance learning, but almost a quarter reported more anxiety. Students with university educated parents reported more anxiety compared to students with parents without university education. Students in general education where less likely to report increases anxiety in distance education compared to students on academic track. Students with dyslexia, social anxiety and depression reported less anxiety in distance education compared to their counterpart without those conditions. About 54% of participants felt good about returning to school but 22% felt bad about it. Students that reported social anxiety, depression, having an immigrant background and were in general education where less likely than other to report that they felt good about returning to school. The result seem to indicate that groups that frequently are thought of as vulnerable had more difficulty returning to school. It seems possible that the long-time consequences of COVID-19 could be greater for these groups and therefore special support is needed for them.

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